


Defining Moments

by BleedingCoffee



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Community: fma_fic_contest, Pic Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-26
Updated: 2014-11-26
Packaged: 2018-02-27 03:44:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2677790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BleedingCoffee/pseuds/BleedingCoffee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Riza reflects on the change of seasons as she walks Hayate in the park.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Defining Moments

**Author's Note:**

> Entry for fma_fic_contest prompt 298: Fall. Inspired by this lovely piece of fanart: http://bljfma.tumblr.com/post/98670311865/heres-my-october-calendar-d
> 
> Oh yes and I don't own FMA.

Black Hayate sniffed at another pile of leaves and then lifted his leg to mark over some other dog's scent. He looked up at his beloved Riza who urged him to move on then followed her through the park until she found a place to sit down. He looked around, hoping that Roy would be joining them. Roy always proved to be amusing and tried to feed him all kinds of treats he knew he wasn't supposed to have. He also liked that Roy got yelled at more than him too.

 

Riza sat down on the bench and smoothed out her skirt. It was an average Saturday in October and colorful leaves rained down on them as the sugar maples began to shed the foliage that many of the park goers were here to see. The wind blew a little harsher, a sign that the cold front was moving in and fall was going to be over soon. She looked up as a couple walked by, arm in arm, and talked about how pretty the leaves were. She wondered if she were to walk through here in the company of the man she adored if it would make the change of season any less foreboding. As the cold wind kicked up once more, the leaves whipped up off the ground and blew away and reminded her of why she disliked the season so much.

Fall was a time to prepare for the winter, not for admiring the beauty of the trees. Having grown up in the country, winter had a different definition in her mind. She never realized that something so simple as seasons held different meanings for people until that first Fall Roy spent with them. The city boy was happy to sit under the trees and watch the leaves turn while he read his books and was even excited about the prospect of snow. He was used to playing in it when the snowstorms shut down the city and he couldn't go to school. Young Roy Mustang was in for a very rude awakening that year.

 

Fall to Riza Hawkeye was a last chance for her to put away the supplies they needed to survive the winter. From harvesting the last of the apples or the corn, to trading for enough hay for their cow to make it through the winter, it was a rush to get things done before the first snow. She cut wood and stacked it, boarded up the windows and put old straw bales around the foundation of the house. She butchered the hog and smoked it, then she hunted deer to process and either can or smoke. The whole time, Roy struggled to understand that they had to be self-sufficient, there was no option to go to town when the snow was deep and they couldn't just go buy food if they ran out. He found out soon enough why she disliked the fall.

 

Fall gave way to the cold and unforgiving winter. Winter was not fun when you lived in an old decrepit farmhouse, devoid of insulation and without trees to protect it from the wind. The wood stoves could not keep up the fight against the cold leaking in from around the single pane windows or through the hollow walls and unprotected crawlspace. The floors were cold, the plaster walls were glacial and the wind whistled through any cracks it could find. Roy was used to gas heat, a warm city home and water pipes that didn't freeze. He tried to put on a brave face, but it was hard with chattering teeth. He didn't complain though and she actually feared he wouldn't come back after holiday break because the winter was so miserable in that old house.

 

Hayate jumped up on the bench and snuggled up close to her. She smiled as she pet his fluffy fur coat and remembered the beautiful coat Roy bought for her and gave to her when he returned in the new year. By the time winter came they were comfortable enough with each other to share a blanket and keep each other warm while he studied on the old frumpy couch. They moved it close enough to the stove to get some heat, but not close enough that the old thing could catch fire. It was the first winter where she didn't feel so miserable and isolated. Reading books on that horrible old couch wrapped up in blankets and in each others arm, it was that friendship that she cherished so much. How funny that they weren't afraid to sit on that couch together in her father's house, but they couldn't be seen together today in the park now that they did more than cuddle under blankets.

 

She looked up at the trees and at some squirrels chattering at them as Hayate growled at the critters. Acorns fell to the ground and oak leaves blew off the limbs as the next breeze shook the upper part of the tall tree. Perhaps she hated the sight of the leaves falling because it signified something else. Fall always brought an even harsher season, winter. A span of cold and darkness, something that also seemed to mark their relationship just like the change of seasons. The fluctuation of happiness and sorrow, and the trying times in between. Fall. So many meanings, not just as a season.

 

A man could fall. Her father fell, finally succumbing to the disease he never wanted anyone to know about. They laid him to rest in late October, she could still remember the chill in the air as they stood there together looking at the freshly dug grave under those bare trees. As they stood there saying their last goodbyes to the man who had brought them together, she saw a blush creep across Roy's cheeks. It surprised her as he sheepishly gave her his card, as if he was giving her his number for a date. She blushed too, flustered by the mere thought that he could think of her in a way other than a friend. Roy left a lanky boy and came back a handsome solider and apparently he thought she had grown up a bit too. It was an awkward reunion and she made it all the more awkward by offering him her father's legacy. If only she knew that it would cause his fall from grace....if she knew that the blushing idealist who stood next to her would become the man he is today, tortured by his actions, she would have thrown herself into the grave with her father. Father, who should have taken his secrets to the grave with him, but instead he passed the burden to her. She in turned shared it with Roy and it was a decision she could only blame on the stupidity of her youth.

 

Roy however saw the secrets differently, just as he viewed the seasons differently. He was outraged by her father's methods of passing on his legacy, but promised to use that work for the greater good. She wanted to believe he was stronger and more capable than her father, that Roy Mustang would not let this damned flame alchemy ruin his life and family like her father had. Roy was better than Berthold Hawkeye, he was driven to protect people. She thought she was giving him a gift, much like how that coat he gave her had kept her warm and secure, he was going to be able to use this damned secret to pass that gift of warmth to more people. What a fool she was. The secret consumed him, much like the flames that he commanded would consume anything they touched.

 

The next time she saw Roy was fall in Ishval, the desert sands whipped around just as the leaves were doing today. Not that you could determine the seasons there, only by keeping a calendar could you even force yourself to recall that the rest of the world did still operate out there somewhere. Unfortunately without seasonal changes there was nothing to look forward to. Not an end to the winter, not a wet and welcoming spring...never an end in sight to  _anything._  Just like the horizon, nothing but hopelessness in every direction of flat and sandy hell, the war just kept going with no end in sight. That's when she saw him again, the newest Flame Alchemist who she had helped create. A lost man walking into the villages before they were reduced to ash and ruins, engulfed by his flames as he fell to his knees in the sands of Ishval. A honest and capable hero now a man broken by her gift. Then she hurt him again, with her request to destroy flame alchemy secrets on her back. . That day she was the one on her knees and she knew if she didn't do something to free herself from the bonds of that curse, she wouldn't recover from the fall.

 

Hayate barked and Riza jumped as she felt something touch her shoulders. She looked up as Roy's handsome face looked down at her from behind the bench. She glanced at her shoulder, he had draped his black trench coat over her as Hayate sat up and put his paws on the top of the bench, his tail wagging as he greeted one of his favorite people. She stood and he came around the bench to make sure the coat sat right on her shoulders, despite it being too big on her.

 

“I know how much you don't like fall.” Roy reluctantly let go of the coat and pet the dog. “I can't wrap my arm around you and tell you it's only temporary, so I guess that coat will have to do it for me until later. Want to come over tonight? I'll get the fire going, we can sit and read and have some dinner?”

 

She pulled the coat around her tighter, letting his unique scent waft up to her nostrils. Comfort came from him, not the fabric. He was right, it was always temporary, even such hell as the war was just a very long year. She had to remember that Roy didn't share her perspective and she could lean on him so she didn't fall prey to her own negativity. Just as he needed her to hold him up when his got the best of him. They'd keep marching forward because eventually it was Bradley who would fall. Then it would be time for a new season and the challenges that it brought. As long as they were together, however, even the coldest and darkest times would have a shred of warmth and hope. “I could use a night like that.”

 

He turned and handed her a cup of coffee he was holding and used it as an excuse to wrap her hands around it, covered by his own. He could tell any passer by that she was cold, he was warming up her hands and he didn't need to worry about his own because of his gloves. Anyone who accused him of being full of shit would back down as soon as they saw his anger flare up. “There's a pastry in my pocket for you too. Fresh apple turnover.“

 

Riza smiled and his hands lingered a moment longer because of it. “You need your coat.”

 

“It looks better on you.” He took his hands back and grinned. “Besides, I'll just take this one.”

 

She watched him turn and scoop Hayate off the bench and into his arms. The dog's legs went in every direction as his body wiggled and tail flapped against Roy as he played with the pup like he was a boy again. Hayate was excited, Roy always played like this before setting the dog down and playing tag or fetch. The feared flame alchemist got a paw in the eye and his face licked for his efforts.

 

“What? You don't want to share this fluff, mutt?” Roy heard the pup yip excitedly and he grabbed at his paws to tickle his feet. “Maybe I want a new fur coat? I look pretty good in black.”

 

Riza sipped her coffee as that couple from earlier passed by again, this time more intrigued by the man playing with the dog in his arms. More people stopped to watch the display as he balled the puppy up and ran his hands against the course of his fur. Hayate let loose an excited growl from under Roy's arm, knowing he was mere seconds away from being put back on the ground. Soon the moment was here and Roy let go, Hayate jumped back and landed on the ground, waiting for the chase to begin. Then, with a burst of speed and energy that most of his comrades would be surprised he had, Roy dashed across the brick walkway and jumped over some small hedges to escape his little furry pursuer. Hayate scrambled after him, ducking under the bushes and barking as Roy ducked and dodged through the trees to try and out run him. The people laughed and smiled at the display, some girls sighed dreamily and one old man playing chess griped about teaching a puppy bad habits. Yes, ladies and gentleman, this is Colonel Roy Mustang your future Fuhrer.

  
  
  
She took another sip of coffee and pulled his coat around her tighter as she watched Roy go down in a pile of leaves and a little black and white dog pounce him. The seasons weren't nearly as bad when she was with him. He played like a child in the leaves and snow and she teased him when he was grumpy in the wet Spring and hot summers. They were partners and no matter what this world threw at them they would persevere. She walked up and looked at him, laying in a pile of leaves with a puppy standing on his chest licking his face. “Sir, this is why the top brass says you're too young for a promotion to Central.”

 

“No this is why the rest of the team thinks you throw me to the ground and have your way with me at lunch.” He grinned and sat up, hugging the pup and setting him down in his lap so he could rub his belly. He pulled a leaf out of his shirt pocket and readjusted the collar of his blazer.

 

“I'm not worried about the team right now, sir. I'm more concerned with the civilians who are more than aware of who you are even out of uniform.” Riza struggled to maintain a straight face as she watched him play like a child in the leaves with Hayate. He had to make everything so difficult.

 

Roy ran his fingers through his hair and shook out the leaves. “Well, my disapproving personal aide, they won't think anything of you running your hands all over me to brush off the leaves and dog hair then. They must be fully aware that you are my official babysitter, Lieutenant Hawkeye.”

 

She let a smile tug at her lips momentarily and then shook her head disapprovingly. “Hardly an appropriate use for your self-proclaimed tactical genius.”

 

“I think it is.” He grinned and set Hayate down, then stood up. “I  _know_  you can't let me walk back home looking like this. What will people say?”

 

Yes, perhaps fall wasn't as bad as it was back then. Roy, however, was much worse than he used to be. He smiled at her and wiggled his butt in her direction to show he was in need of being dusted off. His casual slacks were much better fitted to him than his uniform blues and she couldn't resist a glance at his posterior. Hayate wagged his tail next to him and barked, amused by his antics for some reason. “You're such a bad influence on my dog.”

 

“I'm hoping to be a bad influence on you.” He winked. “Give you something to think about revisiting tonight.”

 

“I doubt I'm going to fantasize about doing your laundry.” She huffed but gave in and brushed off some leaves from his jacket and appreciated the excuse to touch him.

 

“Well, then you can do  _me_  instead.” He said quietly without even the hint of a perverted smirk. “I won't protest if you want to wash me either.”

 

She let a half laugh escape her mouth. She walked right into that one. “You should go about your business before these people think too long about what they're seeing.”

 

He looked over his shoulder at her as she put his trench coat back on his shoulders. “What would I do without you, Lieutenant?”

 

She adjusted his coat lapel with one hand and brushed some imaginary dust from his shoulder. She wondered what she would have done without him to show her that there was no definaitive meaning to anything.   Perceptions could change. “You should leave now so you have time to go to the grocery and make dinner for tonight.”

 

He lifted an eyebrow. “Since I'm cooking, does that mean you'll bring dessert?”

 

“I am dessert.” She said and saw him bite his lip to avoid smiling.

 

“Well good seeing you Lieutenant!” Roy said louder than intended. He abruptly spun, his trench coat whipping around like a cape in the wind, and started to create a shopping list in his head to make sure he would have a dinner ready in time for this evening.

 

She watched him walk briskly towards the park entrance as she sipped her coffee. The urgency in his step only obvious to her as she watched him feel for his pocket watch and check the time. She hid her smile behind her coffee cup as Hayate wagged his tail and looked at her. “Sorry boy, looks like something came up.”

 

Yes, she could see where people might find beauty in these leaves now. Sometimes you just had to live for the moment and let the future fall out of focus for a little while to enjoy life. The fall was only temporary, especially when you had someone by your side to help you through it.


End file.
